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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26729467">Ugly Beautiful</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salmon_I/pseuds/Salmon_I'>Salmon_I</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Samurai Warriors (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Drabbles, F/M, Minor Character Death, Poison, Revenge</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:22:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,616</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26729467</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salmon_I/pseuds/Salmon_I</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Megohime:<br/>From the day of her birth, her father had called her ugly. Her mother had told her that several times he had suggested killing her. He had sons, he had pretty daughters to use in alliance marriages. He didn't need an ugly daughter.</p>
<p>Masamune:<br/>People always spoke of how beautiful his mother was. How gracefully she moved, eloquently she spoke. In childhood he, too, had been under her spell. Even when she was harsh with him, berated him for the smallest of mistakes. He was the future of the Date. There was no room for mistakes.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Date Masamune/Megohime | Tamura Gozen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Ugly</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A series of drabbles surrounding Date and Megohime based on  history, SW1, SW2, and SW2: Empires.  When I embarked on this work my goal was to try to write as if Megohime was a playable character.  What her plotline might look like basically. I'm fairly fond of the outcome.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span class="u"> <em> <strong>Megohime</strong> </em> </span>
</p>
<p>From the day of her birth, her father had called her ugly. Her mother had told her that several times he had suggested killing her. He had sons, he had pretty daughters to use in alliance marriages. He didn't need an ugly daughter.</p>
<p>He never required her presence at banquets or meeting with other fiefs. He didn't need to be embarrassed by her, he'd say. The rejection cut deeply. In her childhood it filled her with sorrow. In her youth, it filled her with anger. The pain became a thirst for vengeance.</p>
<p>She wasn't useless, and she would prove it.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span class="u"> <em> <strong>Masamune</strong> </em> </span>
</p>
<p>People always spoke of how beautiful his mother was. How gracefully she moved, eloquently she spoke. In childhood he, too, had been under her spell. Even when she was harsh with him, berated him for the smallest of mistakes. He was the future of the Date. There was no room for mistakes.</p>
<p>Her search for perfection never bothered him, until after the illness took his eye. Suddenly, he was shunned. She couldn't bear to even look at him. Even what he did well was somehow wrong.</p>
<p>The loss of his eye allowed him to see how ugly his mother was.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Ambition</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <strong>Megohime</strong>
    </em>
  </span>
</p>
<p>She was determined to be the best at something. That was what drew her to the library. She would never be pretty, or elegant. She fumbled on the zither. She sang like a toad. Her moves were graceful, and her steps light, but who would watch a dancer they didn't consider pleasing to look at?</p>
<p>So she read. She read everything she could get her hands on. Histories. Strategies. Poetry. Fiction. Another may have been content simply knowing. But her thirst for vengeance required more. She needed to prove herself. Looking back, perhaps that was where her ambition first started.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <strong>Masamune</strong>
    </em>
  </span>
</p>
<p>Only his grandfather understood his ambition. Why did they blind themselves to what was happening in the land? If Oshu was not united, it would fall to the powers of the west or south. Alliances were useless. Alliances fell apart. Loyalty could be bought. There needed to be a single authority. Only then would they be strong enough to fight what was coming.</p>
<p>"Is it necessary?" His father would ask when he requested to go on another campaign.</p>
<p>"Is our survival necessary?" He had counter.</p>
<p>He always had his way in the end. He supposed that was all that mattered.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Engagement</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <strong>Megohime</strong>
    </em>
  </span>
</p>
<p>Her father expected her to object to the engagement. That much was obvious. Her mother protested enough for both of them "That maimed boy." She’d called him.</p>
<p>"That's why I'm giving him your daughter. He can hardly complain about her ugly face." Her father would snarl in return.</p>
<p>Her sisters taunted her, but she did not rise to the bait. Her father would never know until too late that he'd given her the opportunity of a lifetime. She'd heard a lot of things about Masamune Date. If she played her cards right, vengeance - and her father's lands - would be hers.</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <strong>Masamune</strong>
    </em>
  </span>
</p>
<p>The news of his engagement meant nothing to him. It was just one more ploy by a rival lord to prevent the take over of their land. And it would work no better.</p>
<p>He went along with his father with neither complaint or promise. Nobody could have suspected then what was to come of the meeting. Except, perhaps, Megohime herself.  Upon meeting her in person, their men hissed he was being insulted and even his father seemed displeased. But her whispered words to him made up his mind on the matter.</p>
<p>"If you want the Tamura lands, I can help."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Cold Victory</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <strong>Megohime</strong>
    </em>
  </span>
</p>
<p>She'd always wanted revenge. She was certain watching Date's forces crush her family's would bring her satisfaction. Having their lands become his, and by extension of their marriage, hers, would be the ultimate victory.</p>
<p>But victory wasn't as she'd imagined.</p>
<p>It was battlefields bathed in blood. It was watching cannons tear holes in the manor she'd once called home. It was the smell of burnt flesh. Watching Masamune plunge ahead of his soldiers, sword slashing, guns blazing, risking life and limb. Watching his soldiers return injured. The sight; scent of death. In the end her victory was meaningless and cold.</p>
<p><br/>
<span class="u">
    <em>
      <strong>Masamune</strong>
    </em>
  </span>
</p>
<p>He'd always told his father that someday he'd understand his vision. He was certain that day would be his greatest victory. It did not occur the way he'd imagined it.</p>
<p>Instead, it occured in a peace talk gone wrong. With a hunting trip turned rescue mission. The words he'd longed to hear were not supposed to be his father's death sentence.</p>
<p>"Masamune, you were right."  Was not supposed to be followed by, "As your lord, I command you to attack and take no prisoners."</p>
<p>In the end his victory was a cold one. And it brought him absolutely no joy.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Home</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <strong>Megohime</strong>
    </em>
  </span>
</p>
<p>She had a fondness for the manor she’d at one time called home. Watching it be torn apart by Date's cannons had been difficult. But in the end it was just a building to her, and it could be rebuilt.</p>
<p>Masamune's dedication to Oshu was an altogether different thing. It was affection; dedication. Perhaps even obsession. At first, she couldn't understand it in the least. It was just a land like any other, wasn't it?</p>
<p>It happened battle by battle. Little by little. Each field they cultivated. Each marketplace they developed. It became her land too. Her… no, their Home.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <strong>Masamune</strong>
    </em>
  </span>
</p>
<p>He dreamed of conquering the land. Of bringing an age of peace and prosperity.  While the dream meant all the land would one day be his, he couldn't deny that his heart would always be in Oshu.</p>
<p>In vast expanses of snowy white mountains. In autumn fields ripe with an abundant harvest. In the awe-inspiring sight of the endless ocean stretching toward the horizon.</p>
<p>While the conquering of other clans and fiefs was important, developing the land was what brought him the most joy. Watching fields grow and cities prosper. And teaching Megohime to take pride in it as well.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Poison</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <strong>Megohime</strong>
    </em>
  </span>
</p>
<p>It was obvious to her from the start that Masamune's Mother and Brother were poison. And, while Masamune was not blind to their ill intentions, he endured it as if it were a necessary evil. Every openly callous word, every whispered plot. It was maddening.</p>
<p>"They are who they are." Masamune would tell her as she seethed over their behaviour. "They'll never change their minds. And nothing we say or do will ever change their hearts."</p>
<p>She didn't give a damn about the duo's minds or hearts. But if they hurt Masamune, she'd never forgive them. Even if he would.</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <strong>Masamune</strong>
    </em>
  </span>
</p>
<p>There'd been rumors for months, but he'd hoped common sense would dissuade them from acting rashly. Perhaps in some irrational part of his mind, he had clung to the hope that what he'd told Megohime was wrong. That they would change their minds. That something he did or said could reach their hearts.</p>
<p>That hope was a poison that weakened him. Made him vulnerable. Perhaps that was why the attack still took him by surprise.</p>
<p>Poisoned wine choking him; his castle in flames around him. Only Megohime and Kojuro between him and his potential killers. Ironically, he'd never felt safer.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Fight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <strong>Megohime</strong>
    </em>
  </span>
</p><p>It was after the failed attempt on his life that she first brought it up. In all honesty, she'd thought he'd be open to the idea.</p><p>"I want to go to battle with you."</p><p>"Absolutely not."</p><p>It had actually taken her a minute to realize he'd said no. "Why not?"</p><p>"It isn't your place."</p><p>"My place is where you are."</p><p>"Not in battle."</p><p>"Why?"</p><p>"You don't even know how to fight."</p><p>"So teach me."</p><p>"I refuse."</p><p>"You can't."</p><p>"You're my wife, I damn well can!"</p><p>"We don't have a marriage! We have a business deal!"</p><p>"And who's idea was that!!"</p><p> </p><p>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <strong>Masamune</strong>
    </em>
  </span>
</p><p>He wasn't wrong. He told himself that through two days of silent treatment</p><p>Kojuro suggested that a woman knowing how to defend herself wasn't a bad idea on the third day. He called him an imbecile.</p><p>On the fifth day, Shigezane told him that a man's belief he was in command of his wife only lasted as long as their first fight. He told him he was a moron.</p><p>On the seventh day he bought her a gun.</p><p>The idea that it was only for defense lasted until she saw it, and he saw the smile that lit her face.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Beautiful</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <strong>Megohime</strong>
    </em>
  </span>
</p><p>Their marriage was an arrangement. To the outside world, it was a clan arrangement. For them it had been a business arrangement. Affection and desire were not supposed to be involved.  She could never pinpoint exactly when she had crossed that line. When their marriage became more than a matter of convenience.</p><p>He could have helped matters. By not smiling so brightly, or speaking of his dreams so passionately.  Hadn't taken her out, proudly showing her their expanding lands. Hadn't given into her request to learn to fight. Hadn't spoiled her so atrociously. Hadn't been, to her, so amazingly beautiful.</p><p>
  <br/>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <strong>Masamune</strong>
    </em>
  </span>
</p><p>By traditional standards, Megohime wasn’t beautiful. His mother had often called his wife ugly, even. Perhaps it was his lack of stock in tradition that had never made him disdain her appearance. In fact, the more time that passed, the more attractive he felt she was.</p><p>Personality played no small part. Megohime was brilliant and learned. Strong and independent. Open-minded about his ties to the foreigners, and just as passionate about developing their land as he was.</p><p>He only called her beautiful once. She cuffed him across the face.</p><p>He never called her beautiful again, but he still thought it.</p>
  </div></div>
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